The chief diversity officer of the nation’s oldest state-supported military college, Virginia Military Institute, has turned in her resignation amid a debate among alumni over the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Jamica Love took on the new role in July 2021 — a month after a state-sanctioned report found VMI failed to address institutional racism and sexism and must be held accountable for making changes.
Love’s resignation was announced Thursday by VMI’s first Black superintendent, retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, and was first reported by The Washington Post.
Love, who is the only Black woman to report to VMI’s superintendent, declined to comment in an email to The Associated Press Friday.
Shah Rahman, a 1997 VMI graduate, told the AP that Love was an asset to the school and that her leaving is “a terrible thing.”
Love’s hiring has been part of recent diversity efforts at the school, which was founded in Lexington in 1839 and carries the prestige of educating the likes of Gen. George Patton. . . .. (read more on Air Force Times)
A few thoughts on this from VMI grads:
My take is that the VMI administration of MG Wins & the Board of Visitors has been engaged in an insurgency against the Youngkin administration since Gov Y took office, if not before. It’s either that, or they refuse to educate themselves that CRT-DEI programs are, in fact, destructive of the professed objectives of the Services and our military schools.
This announcement appears timed to make Youngkin and his chief diversity-opportunity-equity officer (Martin Brown) look like fools. VMI is thumbing its nose at Richmond. And they’re getting away with it. Both Youngkin and Brown spoke at VMI within the last month. Brown declared “DEI is dead,” whatever that was supposed to mean. It’s certainly not dead at VMI, although Youngkin’s Executive Order Number One, 17 months ago, was aimed at ridding Va schools of “inherently divisive concepts,” which CRT-DEI is.
Meanwhile, VMI’s own recruiting is now about like the US Army’s, 25% below the stated goal for the 22-23 academic year. And fewer and fewer alumni are donating to the cause of wokeness at VMI. A recent alumni donation campaign was a big flop, to which an alumni responded with a very encouraging petition that countered the VMI Alumni Agencies’ effort.
MG Wins’s statements in the last week show he is doubling down on the woke agenda while trying to make it look as though we’re ops-normal at VMI. The BoV has been passively in support
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“My take is that she is not seeing the DEI/CRT taking hold as much as she would like to see and found a job elsewhere. Her briefing to the BOV last year was about as radical as you could get. It was not received well.
Then there was bringing in Kimberly Dark https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Dark to speak at VMI. Don’t believe that was very well received either.
VMI is trying to water down DEI and rebrand it as DOI (diversity, opportunity, and inclusion) and Inclusive Excellence. Like the above said, DEI is not dead but I believe they are trying to give the impression to the Youngkin administration that they are aligned with his objectives. They are not.
VMI is in serious trouble. Alumni are starting to lose trust and if they don’t hit their 450 mark in enrollment this Fall, I believe significant changes will start to take place.
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LtGen Bishop, STARRS Chairman:
“Thank you all for your thoughts and input. What we grads are trying to avoid at USAFA–but we can’t even get supporting organizations to stand up against this harmful, Marxist ideology. People need to come to understand the Marxist roots and intent of CRT/DEI and “diversity” and “inclusion” don’t mean what they used to mean–Aesopian language at its best (worst). Listen to the people receiving the training–the great majority will tell you how “over the top” and divisive it is!
I asked a cadet this past week if we were making too much of an issue of this? His response: “Absolutely not! it would be much worse if people weren’t making a big deal and resisting this on our behalf.” (Can’t remember the exact quote–but this is the gist of what he said.)
Sure wish our schools would “teach” CRT/DEI–its origin, lineage, history and intent–instead of just indoctrinating cadets with its tenets! People, then, might begin to understand that division and “equity” (government imposed discrimination) are the goals here and the enactment of this ideology is putting our armed forces on the road to mediocrity instead of meritocracy.
Most Americans would say we deserve to have the best leaders, not leaders picked based on color of skin or other immutable characteristics . The two black gentlemen with whom I served on the NIPMSR panel kept telling the group “equal opportunity” is what we want. “I want to know I have earned what I am getting” (promotion, leadership opportunity, assignment, etc.). The exact same think I have heard from “minority” cadets.
As we Denver Bronco fans keep saying–“we don’t want the Denver Bronco’s to have only 13% black players.” We want the very best players. Why wouldn’t we want the best leaders leading our military (chosen on ability and not skin color) where our national security is at stake?
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